Gawd, I had a huge box of 2000AD before the Decade of Three Children And Ten House Moves. I still have a few of my faves. Tim12s, you can tell your mate that my all time favourite 2000AD issue was the one where Bradley interviews the Sisters of Mercy. I got it at the newsagent and just about shat standing with mirth on my way to the bus.

My relationship with 2000ad started on prog 86 and carried on till '95, '96 (coincides with children!). I've tried to get back into it but I never see it in a newsagents, I don't live in a city. I should try clickwheel I guess.

@kradlum, I've seen your stuff on flickr, I have a similar addiction here and here

Question is, what can I do with the pallet of 200ADs in my garage? (yes pallet!)

@Drew_badly go back and read them (seriously!) - or introduce your kids to them

Unfortunately very few issues are worth anything, first couple of progs I think (especially if they have the space spinner or biotronic stickers), and perhaps the Burger War issues (which were banned after legal action by a major fast food retailer and the story never reprinted). And I think there are a couple of issues that were affected by fire/flood/strike and are thus rarer

It sounds like you have the "Golden Age" of 2000ad sitting in your garage. Use Barney's Thrill Zone to find out which issues contain which stories (e.g. Halo Jones 376-385, 405-416, 451-466)

@Molcher -- thanks -- but it's more of a return. Back when I was first buying comics the colour Eagle Dredds (and practically everything else) as well as the progs that made it over to Canada made up much of my monthly comics reading. I always figured I'd end up at a con in the UK at some point and get to ask some editorbot to let me draw something at some point, but I wandered away from drawing comics for a while and that didn't happen.

I still remember reading through stacks of friend's brother's 2000 ADs, vast blocks of beautiful black-and-white-and-words-all-over density. The sheer joy of finishing an issue and just leaping into the next one (the same reason I buy the TPBs today, and was beyond delighted when The Complete Ace Trucking appeared in my local comic-shop.)

I am pleased to announce that this thread has had its intended effect - a few clicks and a glorious year of digital subscription is mine. Just as you lamented, I cannot believe I hadn't thought to check that before.

The greatest moment will always be that Mega City citizen trying to commit suicide by leaping off a pedway, with Dredd Lawmastering down after him yelling "NO LITTERING!"

I randomly bought issue one in 1977. I was one of those kids who is obssessed with dinosaurs so Flesh was what got me in, and what made me stay - I remember it was the first story I ever read ( I was quite young, about 8 or 9) where a major character was killed (this turned out to be, in some ways, a 2000 A.D. tradition). I think it was the art as well: I didn't really like super hero art and found something more engaging in the styles in 2000 A.D. I stuck with it for over a decade; and ended up with an extra issue of the Burger Wars - my grandad bought me one and so did my mum. I still have both copies. It's the one with the 'Certain Clown' about the eat the Judge Burger on the cover. I imagine most people have seen it though, given the miracle of the internet. I didn't find out about it's lack of re-printing for some years, being isolated in Tasmania and all.

I stopped buying it when I was really, really poor and never went back having lost the rythym. I quite miss it.

Favourite stories: Dredd yarns: The Cursed Earth, Un-Amercan Graffitti (introducing the Chopper character and predicting tagging); Time Twister ChronoCops ( a pre-Watchmen Alan Moore Dave Gibbons story), Ace Trucking Co., the Slaine story 'Sky Chariots' - I think Slaine was, overall, my favourite story, cloesly floolwed by Johnny Alpha. I love Wulf and was really, really crapped off when he was killed. I recall being far more excited by the actual art than any specicif story and really loving Kevin O'Neill, Brian Bolland and Mike McMahon, who is possilby best remembered for Dredd, but whose high poitn for me will always be the work he did on Slaine. Slaine came to be dominated by a kind of over the top fantasy style (by whom I CANNOT remember) but although I knew it was wonderful, it never quite worked for me - the character had been defined by McMahon, although I did enjoy Bellardinelli's version - cripes I just thought of his incredible work on those very early Dan Dare strips and those awesome alians, the Biogs. Carlos Ezquerra was pretty good as well.

There's heaps of other things I could mention but I'll be here all day. I'm glad to know it's still running, but I always assumed it would. It was very important to me in shaping how I looked at comics and giving me a a disdain for super heroes. I'll always wonder if it was warranted.

2000ad was a great influence for me when I was young, Weekly treks to the newsagent to spend 28p on a magazine that appeared to be printed on sugarpaper. As far as anthologies go, it's always been clearly superior, even when Marvel UK attempted to counter in the early 90's. There have been real high and low points, wince inducing idolatory crap, and almost impossibly brilliant original works, not to mention the ebb and flow of the regulars hitting and missing. Dredd has seen some of the best storylines and artwork of any material produced, and the truth is in the product, how many people love such a potentially dislikable character. My greatest 2000ad love was, (and here comes the correction) Metalzoic. (Yes! I know it was DC! but they repoed it) because it was a succinct marriage between artwork and writing, and following that, the evolution of Nemesis the Warlock. I personally believe it took a lot of stones to make the protagonist of a comic strip as evil as his opponent. And as a final mention, Ace Trucking Co., I only found out Bellardinelli had died about a fortnight back, and by gods, that mans artwork was a (slightly demented) beauty to behold. I hope that 2000ad lasts a good while longer.

I bought 2000ad weekly for eight or so years from 1997 after discovering the Megazine in the railway station. That issue contained the second complete issue of Preacher, which led me on a "Huh? You can do that in comics?" to eventually be a weekly buyer of Tooth.Then I managed a subscription for a couple of years and then, I just haven't had the cash to resub. I'm about 2 or 3 years away from it at this point and I still miss my Saturday morning deliveries.

I still have all my issued in the loft, permanently threatening to bring them out and re-read them. Never doing so.

Belardinelli was great. I did a blog post about his Dan Dare a few months back - if they hadn't called it Dan Dare, made it a new space adventure serial with a new hero, it would have run for years, just on the strength of Belardinelli's visuals. The burden of living up to an original it was nothing like is what killed it. But it was an absolute blast while it lasted.

I've read a few comments, probably in David Bishop's book Thrill-Power Overload, from people involved in 2000AD back then complaining that Belardinelli has been marginalised in 2000AD fandom because his heroes were "limp-wristed" or "weeds", which I take to mean he wasn't very good at doing macho. Probably true, but he had the most bizarre visual imagination of anyone on the comic except maybe Kevin O'Neill (imagine if Belardinelli had drawn Nemesis!). Meltdown Man and Ace Trucking were triumphs, and even the objectively terrible stuff like Blackhawk was fun to look at. I'm glad to see he's starting to be reappraised now.

I believe he wasn't reprinted by Titan because one of the senior guys there hated Bellardinelli's style.

I have heard that there was a section of fandom at the time who also couldn't stand his art, but they must have been a vocal minority (possibly keeping in touch through the one or two early fanzines), as very few of the fans these days express anything but love for his work. Rebellion wouldn't have made the big Ace Trucking Co or Meltdown Man (or the upcoming Blackhawk) collections available if there wasn't a big market for this. It is a pity they can't, at the moment, reprint his Dan Dare run.

Thus to my dismay, although mainstream readers loved his Slaine, purist comic fans (who were then a small minority on 2000AD) were less than enthusiastic and Massimo's divine spark was entirely lost on them. Despite their small numbers, they had become the dominant voice on 2000AD and critical acclaim was more important than mere reader popularity and commercial success at the box office. Hence why Massimo's work on Slaine was never albumised by Titan Books, the leading fan forum, despite my constant pleas to the publisher that "regular" readers adored his work and his books would sell big-time. As a result of the negative feedback from purists, other artists had to take over on Slaine.

I think the Slaine story "Time Killer" must have been intended for Belardinelli - the macrobes in that were very like his Biogs in Dan Dare.